Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think many of the questions I was going to ask have already been mentioned. I would like more clarification on the pillars themselves. As I understand it, the figures and statistics are not available. That is crucial. I spent my whole Christmas trying to get people I represent into hotels and trying to get funding in my own area, and it was a massive issue for me. I will address that another time.

With regard to the €70 million allocated for purchasing house, how many have been purchased? What are the different areas? I understand that there is a crisis in Dublin and Galway and the bigger cities.

I read over the programme over Christmas, because I had a lot of dealings with many people over that period in this regard, and an issue that is not addressed is the staffing issue. The biggest issue in local authorities is the staffing issue. For example, people who want to go on the local authority housing list can be waiting from ten to 12 weeks. That is unacceptable. I believe that the Department should put in place a rule that nobody should be waiting longer than four weeks for a housing interview. That is leading to the most vulnerable people in our society not getting rent allowance or the housing assistance payment, HAP. That is a major issue.

We are talking about homelessness, and I think there are different types of homelessness. Over Christmas I had six families who were taken off the local authority housing list. I raised this issue with the Department six months ago. In my own local authority housing list area, there is a limit of 26,250. I could write the book on it at this stage. I have people who are being taken off the list. I had three families in particular who were eight years on the housing list, and because they were over the bracket, as it were, they were taken off. In neighbouring counties, the very same as in Carlow, they are allowed a limit of 30,000 or 32,000. That is not acceptable. The officials are not doing their homework. I can give them the names of six families today who were taken off the local authority housing list. They lost the rent allowance and they are now homeless. We are getting to a stage where unless the most vulnerable are addressed, people are starting to be taken off the housing list.

The other issue is the HAP, and I have to say that overall the HAP is a good scheme. I would be agree with it in that people can declare exactly how much they are paying to the landlord, whereas for years that was a disaster. Many landlords, however, do not seem to want to accept the HAP, and I believe it is because there is a mismatch in the information they are receiving. They feel that it is different to the rent allowance, which it is. It is better, but they do not understand that. Another area where the Department officials are falling down, as it were, is that people are refusing to accept the HAP. The local authorities will say that landlords are not accepting the HAP. One of the reasons is that in this new HAP scheme, and this comes back again to staffing levels, there are supposed to be call outs to make sure the homes are up to a proper standard. While that is good and we need a proper standard, there is no one to implement it. There are not enough staff and no one is able to do it.

I read through the action plan over the Christmas when I had so many people going into bed and breakfast accommodation and hotels. It just does not make sense to me that there is a programme in place, and while I know the Department officials are doing their best, the most vulnerable people are not being catered for. These are not the homeless, but they are next to the homeless. What I am finding is that these people are starting to become homeless.

While the new help to buy scheme is a good scheme, there are no new houses in most rural areas for first-time buyers. We have brought in a help to buy scheme for people who must be a first-time buyer or engaging in a first-time build. We have no houses for them. I promoted this scheme in our local newspapers and I was on the radio about it. I was delighted to praise this scheme. People came back to me to say they did not know where there was a first-time house to buy. They could not buy because there were no first-time builds. I told them to look for a mortgage from the local authority. Local authority mortgages are an issue that must be addressed. There is a lack of information about them and they have not been promoted well enough. The Department should promote these mortgages through every local authority. There needs to be a system in place for the people who are refused a loan or mortgage from a bank or building society because of the rules that are there and they do not qualify, which that is fair enough, but who also do not qualify for the local authority housing list. The help to buy scheme is fine in bigger areas like Dublin, Cork and Limerick where they are building, but there are no new builds in rural counties. There are no new houses. This means people will not qualify for it while the local authorities are not promoting mortgages. These are simple things, but if the Department addresses these in its plan it will make a big difference to the most vulnerable families in society. That is where the plan is failing.

The issues I raise are not major but the one I really want an answer on is the need to change the income limit for local authority housing from €26,500 to €32,000. As I said, I will give the witnesses the six names because those people are now homeless.